Unable to open database objects

I run several Access databases without problems. One of them recently fails to open the database object windown, either when pressing F11, when selecting from the menu, or when pressing the icon on the toolbar. No error appears; just nothing happens. An attempt to run the Report Wizard on this datbase returned an error "ActiveX component cannot create object." The basic input form appears without a problem and I can add or retrieve recores. The problem occurs with this one database only both on my PC running WINNT 4.0 and Access 97 and on my laptop running Windows 2000 and Office 2000. I've checked permissions which are fine; I work as Administrator on both machines. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Re: Unable to open database objects

Take a look at Microsoft knowledgebase article #Q189366 and see if that applies to your situation. Is Access 2000 installed on both your machines? Is Access 97 installed on both machines? Is this a runtime application?

Re: Unable to open database objects

Charlotte, many thanks for your fast response. I don't think the article fits, because I am not using a run-time version, there is now VBA code, I'm not receiving error 429, and this same database used to work correctly.

Access 97 only is installed on the PC and Access 2000 only is installed on the laptop. I have copied the database to the laptop and once, I think, I copied it back from the laptop to the PC. I opened it on the laptop in the mode that does not convert it to Access 2000.

Re: Unable to open database objects

Is this the only database where you're running it alternately in Access 97 and 2000? I generally avoid that because of the performance hit, but I haven't seen this particular problem. Have you compacted the database on a machine running Access 2000? Or have you compacted it with the latest JetComp?

Re: Unable to open database objects

You said that you copied the data between the laptop and PC. If you copied a Access 2000 database and tried to read it in an Access 97 database then it wont work because of backwards compatibility issues.

Re: Unable to open database objects

It's not really that I run databases alternately on two machines. I have three key databases that I maintain on my PC running WINNT 4.0 and Access 97. Periodically, I copy all three to my laptop and to my PC at the office. On the laptop and at the office I query only...I don't add or change records and I don't create or change reports, queries, or forms. The other two databases have not given me any problem.

I am not sure whether, on the database giving me the problem, I may have added a few records using the laptop and then copied it back to the PC. If I did that, I then subsequently copied it back to the laptop from the PC. Being aware of the backwards compatibility issue, I don't think I did so, but would this have created the problem? Is the backward compatibility partial, that is, can one open a form, query and add records, but do nothing else? If I did copy the database backwards, what do I do now? As an experiment, I was able to export one of the the three tables to Excel. Do I have to rebuild the whole application and import the tables from the non-functioning one?